


On the road to being

by MemeKon



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Post season three, Road Trips, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-30
Updated: 2013-08-30
Packaged: 2017-12-25 01:59:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/947278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MemeKon/pseuds/MemeKon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The roads are dusty and long, almost unending. The places start blurring with each other after the few first stops.</p><p>Cora tells Derek stories about South America, about Uruguay, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, about Brazil and white sand beaches.</p><p>She lies on hotel beds that smell of strangers at night and talks about mate and huesillo and learning to curse in Spanish and Portuguese and learning how to say 'I love you' in Guaraní ('rohayhu', with a sharp r that he can't pronounce and makes Cora laugh for a solid five minutes).</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the road to being

**Author's Note:**

> A bunch of Hale siblings feelings.

The roads are dusty and long, almost unending. The places start blurring with each other after the few first stops.

Cora tells Derek stories about South America, about Uruguay, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, about Brazil and white sand beaches.

She lies on hotel beds that smell of strangers at night and talks about mate and huesillo and learning to curse in Spanish and Portuguese and learning how to say 'I love you' in Guaraní ('rohayhu', with a sharp r that he can't pronounce and makes Cora laugh for a solid five minutes).

Tells him about the one pack that took her in in Misiones, all warmth and welcoming hugs and helping her build her life back, about sharing tables with them and eating mbeyú and reviro.

Talks about a boy she fell for, and kissed impulsively, when he took her to the Iguazú Falls. Hides her grin in a pillow when he scowls a little at the mental picture of her baby sister kissing anyone.

It makes his heart ache, every word that comes out of her mouth, because with every tiny private smile and every skip in her heartbeat, it becomes clearer and clearer that once they are done with this, done with establishing a relationship as family again, as soon as they manage to become brother and sister again (even if tentatively), she'll probably go away again, back to where she's found a pack. Her pack.

And he won't hold her back. He's made mistakes in the past, he's been selfish and rushed and he's screwed up so much. Destroyed kids' lives. He knows this. There's guilt inside of him that will probably be there forever, reminding him of what he is capable to avoid feeling alone.

But he wants to do better. And so when the time comes and Cora decides to walk away, back to the life she made for herself, in the place she chose, with the people who've aided in making her a real, breathing and functioning person again, he'll let her go.

 

Derek only listens, at first, alone with his imagination and the places Cora describes that he's only seen in pictures and the various Coras he hasn't had the chance to see: Cora at twelve, Cora with a sunburn at thirteen that takes an entire day to heal, and Cora lovestruck at fourteen.

Cora is much more of a talker than he is, anyway, and to nobody's surprise; she's rough around the edges and as lost as he is when it comes to _them_ , but she's still better at this than him, more used to surviving on her own and adapting than he is.

And she's more easily annoyed by uncomfortable silences than he is

 

But one night something gets in him, an antsy something, a restless something. So he opens his mouth, wets his lips, lets his teeth clack once or twice (and Cora stops talking about going to school somewhere where they use the metric system instead of feet and sort of scowls a bit, irritated at the sound, which is mostly why he does it, because putting that expression on his sibling's face brings him a sort of underrated contentment that he hasn't experienced since Laura) and says, “when Laura and I left Beacon Hills, we went on a road trip, too.”

Cora turns her body towards him, then; she locks her gaze on his, soft and encouraging. She lets silence enfold them, waits for him to decide whether he's ready to take over or not, whether he can start disclosing himself the way she has.

“She bought the Camaro a few weeks after..”

“After the fire.” Cora finishes for him, and he itches to go over to her and hug her, touch her shoulders and her arms and grow used again to the smell of her hair.  
“She bought it with some of the insurance money.”

“Yeah, sounds like something she would do.” Cora nods, lips tugging upwards, creating a strange effect while lying down with the lights off and her hair flying everywhere.

He smiles.

“Yeah, I know.”

He doesn't know what to say after that, for a while. Doesn't know what is okay, what isn't, what Cora's expecting of him.

“Derek, relax.” Cora tells him, then, sensing his distress. “I'm still the same person you tripped in the woods to get them to fall into a mud puddle--”

“That was _once._ ”

“-- _And_ the same sister whose Barbies you beheaded,--”

“ _You ratted me out to mom--_ ”

“I was _seven!_ ”

He snorts.

“Yeah, seven and a total terror.”

“What? No, I wasn't.” Cora throws a pillow at him, which is so childish a gesture that he can't help but break into a tiny laugh.

The pillow lands straight on his face.

When he calms down he looks at her and he face is soft and reassuring, the same way it was after he gave up his Alpha status to save her.

“I'm sorry.” He says. It's loaded, and too vague, and he knows it won't be enough, but he has to get it out there, has to say it.

“I know.” She answers.

Silence settles once again after that, and Derek lets himself listen to the sounds of the hotel, of the surrounding rooms, the muffled voices, and snoring, and the noises of the night outside. He listens in on the silence outside the place, the road quiet and still.

And he feels okay. For the first time in months, he feels okay. Like there's hope, like he can make something out of himself and the wreckage that is his life.

“Let me tell you about the time Laura almost had us end up in jail for joyriding.”

“ _No way._ ”

“I wish I was making this up,” he says, and moves around in bed until he finds a comfortable position, arm under his pillow, before he starts talking again.

(When the time comes Cora will return to her pack, yes, but he'll make sure that when that happens she'll still stay part of his family.)


End file.
